Russia fines TikTok for violating laws on 'LGBT propaganda', Twitch penalised for hosting Arestovych interview
The US head office of TikTok is shown in Culver City, California, US, on September 15, 2020.
On Tuesday, Russia finedTikTok for failing to remove content that broke Russian rules on "LGBT propaganda."
A Reuters inquiry for comment received no immediate response from either business. Without providing any other information, Interfax said that a TikTok representative in the courtroom had demanded that the proceedings be stopped.
The fines are the most recent development in Moscow's protracted legal battle with Big Tech, which has also included requests for data storage, content-related restrictions, and outright bans.
According to the Tagansky District Court in Moscow, TikTok, which is owned by the Beijing-based IT company ByteDance, was fined 3 million roubles ($51,000).
According to news organisations, the corporation was accused of "promoting non-traditional values, LGBT, feminism and a distorted representation of traditional sexual values" on its platform, which is the basis of the complaint against TikTok.
According to the court, Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, was fined $68,000 or 4 million roubles. The issue, according to news reports, was brought about when Twitch held an interview with Oleksiy Arestovych, a counsellor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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This year, Twitch was penalised 3 million roubles for hosting yet another Arestovych interview.
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Russia is thinking about extending its 2013 "gay propaganda" law, which prohibits any individual or organisation from endorsing homosexual relationships among youngsters. The law should be amended to cover adults as well, according to lawmakers, and the penalties for exposing children to "LGBT propaganda" should be enhanced.
Human rights advocates claim the rule has been extensively used to frighten Russia's LGBT population. Russian officials claim they are safeguarding morals in the face of what they claim are un-Russian liberal principles propagated by the West.
(with inputs from agencies)